You may be asking yourself
What musical instrument should my child learn? Ukulele, Piano, Guitar, Drums, singing. It can be a case of trial and error. You want them to experience the benefits of music and try out lots of things, but sooner or later you’ll want them to commit to at least one instrument so that they can concentrate on progressing.
We offer an introduction to music here at Modern Music Learning which run for 1 full term (10 weeks) which offers 2 weeks on each instrument that we teach. Piano, Guitar, Ukulele, Singing and drums. It’s a great way of not having to fork out money on an instrument little Suzie or Jonny’s gonna throw into the corner of the room after one week.
One thing I always say to parents is ask your child what instrument they enjoyed the most. There’s no point investing in music lessons if you want them to play piano and for them to become little Mozarts, when are they really want is to play drums and be little Dave Grohls.
Once you’ve decided on an instrument it’s a good idea to stick it out for a few terms at least as it does take time to understand music on the surface and in depth so be patient. Learning a musical instrument is a marathon not a 100m sprint, so prepare, invest and motivate them to progress. Practice makes progress, perfection is in the progression not the destination.
So next question; I want the best for my child but how much are lessons?
Any good music tutor or school worth their pinch of salt unfortunately won’t be ultra cheap. You can definitely find cheap tutors around, but what’s the catch. Any product or service there is you’re always going to have a spectrum of quality and music lessons are no different. Of course there is somethings an exception to the rule but you usually get what you pay for. Most tutors and school have Bachelor degrees or a Grade 8 in their instrument.
So find out what credentials they have. If they don’t have any it’s certainly not the end of the world, but you probably wouldn’t go to the guy down the road with no credentials if you wanted to see a doctor.
What’s their syllabus, do they have one? What’s their plan, do they set goals and how do they record your child’s progress.
When should we buy and instrument, which one, how much???
Now that you’ve said to yourself ok we’re gonna stick this out for a few terms that can be your end goal and then you can decided if the little one is going to stick it out for another year or instead he/she wants to try rowing, basketball, netball or a million other hobbies we all know kids do!.
Why not consider renting an instrument out? Most music stores have a rental department when you can hire a decent keyboard, guitar, ukulele, drums no voice rentals though sorry! 🙂
on a monthly or term basis so do some research. Of course it does depend on the Instrument. Ukuleles are very inexpensive and can be picked up from around $20, guitar a little bit more and keyboards and drums tend to be the most.
How often should we have classes?
Every week at the same time preferably. You want to build a routine and stick to it. I know fortnightly lessons may sound like a good idea because of timetables and other commitments, but honestly kids and also Adults attention spans wavier at the best of times so 2 weeks to a kid is life time. So commit to the weekly lessons if you can.
There is definitely a lot to think about when starting out and choosing and instrument but just remember these points.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for next weeks blog on ‘How and When to Practice’
